Slender Seeds
by Vivi-ntvg
Summary: He defied the forest. And it made him who he is. A story of Slenderman's origins.
1. Who I am

_Follows._

That's what the note says. That's what I've been doing for countless years now, so many that it seems like my whole life has been spent here. Silently stalking people, terrifying them while they walk among the trees, wondering when I will appear.

_Always watches, no eyes._

I never take a break from observation. I am well aware of everyone that enters the forest, and I see all their moves. _No eyes…_ I remember this wasn't always like that, but no one knows this, just me. And it frightens them, the fact that my face is perfectly blank. I can see that in their own eyes when I look at them. My complete lack of expression, of… _humanity_, is scary for them. They don't understand what I am, and they fear what they don't know.

_Can't run._

Nobody can hope to get away from me. They can only run, while I can teleport myself wherever I want to. And that is even more frightening for them, the knowledge that I can show up right next to them.

_Don't look or it takes you._

This is the worst of all for them. They can't look at me, or their lives, their precious lives, that which humans value the most, will be gone in a flash. This knowledge is what makes them feel horrified by me, the reason why they run away from me when they see me…

And finally, the worst notes of all, the ones that seem to haunt me wherever I am.

_Leave me alone. Help me._

Oh, I wish I could. I wish I were able to put an end to all this, to stop stalking people and let them live their lives, like they want to. Because that's what every human wants, to grow up, get married and get old with a few grandchildren, then die.

However, I can't. I must continue following people, killing them for daring to enter this dark forest in the middle of nowhere. And what disturbs me is that I can't blame them for their courage, or temerity, or whatever feeling it is that drives them here.

I cannot, because I was one of them once. I defied the dark powers of the forest, and came into it without any fear. What could possibly harm me? It was just a couple of trees, nothing special. I could walk in and out with ease.

I was wrong. I never imagined the evil that resided in that forest, kept cautiously away from the rest of the world, to prevent any wandering humans from finding it. But I made the mistake of going there, and I paid the price dearly.

They took my life. They took my body, my friends, my family, my home… everything was stolen from me. I was turned into this monster, and I hate myself for it. But what can I do?

There's no way out of this.

* * *

_Today, boys and girls everywhere in High Lake are celebrating Halloween, dressed up and trick-or-treating. Unfortunately, today's also a grim day for the Randall family, as it's the third anniversary of their son's mysterious death in the Darkwood forest..._


	2. How it all started

_Mike Randall  
19th October 1990 – 31st October 2009  
Beloved son and friend_

When I was young, I would have never imagined I would ever be able to visit my own tomb. Nor would I have thought I would want to. Now, however, doing so is the only way to approach the life I once had. The people, the things I left behind. But I can only come at night, when no one can see me, or else I would have to kill even more people than I already do.

Nobody knows that my name was once Mike Randall, or that I used to have a family, go to school… But it was like that before. I was a normal student, not very hard-working but I always managed to get fairly good grades. I had a small group of friends with whom I spent all day. We were at school together, went to parties together, and challenged each other sometimes.

A challenge. That's what changed everything.

It was my birthday, and all my friends were home. We were all having a great time, talking and laughing. As my birthday is close to Halloween, the conversation soon spun around what we would do on the thirty-first.

"Let's go scare trick-or-treaters!" said Will, my best friend. He loved to frighten people, and Halloween was the best day of the year for him, even better than Christmas. "See how they run away, screaming."

"We did that last year", I reminded him. "Let's do something different."

"Hmmm… how about a dare?" Peter said. "One of us must do something scary, something that takes guts."

"Well, it's Mike's birthday, so he should be the one to do it" laughed Will.

"Try me", I challenged. "I'm not going to back off like a chicken, unlike _others_…"

"Hey!" protested Frank. "I told you I'm allergic to dust! I wasn't going to go down that basement and catch a-"

"Oh, cut the crap, Frankie. We all know the truth", Will teased.

"Anyway, I'll do anything, so go ahead and test me."

"Anything, hmm?" Will thought about it.

"What about the forest?" said Mark.

"What forest?" I asked.

"The one that's a couple of miles down the main road, passing the town… How about going there, on your own?"

"No problem. I can do it."

"All right" said Will, "but we'll take you so that we can see that you'll actually get into the forest."

"Please, I'm no coward. I won't run away. Besides, what's the worst that could happen? A branch falling on my head?"

"It's decided then" Frank said. "You'll go to the forest on Halloween night. Go in there, and bring us a branch from the trees that are in the heart of it, and you'll be a hero." We all laughed at that.

"It's a deal" I promised.

Without knowing it, I was sealing my fate.

That October 31st, I woke up and went to school as always, without thinking much about what I was going to do that evening. After all, what could go wrong? My friends would be there, in any case. When the night came, I picked up a torch, making sure it had full batteries (I didn't want to be in the middle of the dark) and waited for my friends to arrive.

"Nervous?" asked Will, while he drove us towards the forest. His tone was teasing.

"I'll wet my pants" I joked.

"Well, Frankie over here would surely do that. He'd hear a bird or something and just run away."

We all laughed, while Frank pretended to be offended at the comment.

"Seriously, be careful" Peter warned me in a serious tone. "We don't want you breaking your leg because you tripped over a root or something like that."

"Don't worry, I've brought a torch" I said, showing it to him. "I'm not that stupid."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that", Will teased, and I pretended to punch him.

"We know nothing will happen. Look, here we are" he said, pulling over. There was the forest. Trees and more trees were the only thing in view.

"Well, good luck mate" Mark said. "Don't take too long, or we'll have to go in and get you, and I'm sure Frank won't like that."

I smiled, turned the torch on and walked into the forest. It was just a place with innocent living beings, though the only ones I could see were the trees. As those became more numerous, it was harder to see before me. Maybe, if I had paid more attention, I would've noticed the sudden wind. Maybe I would've felt the slight rumbling of the trees. Perhaps I would've seen how the trees' branches angled menacingly towards me. Or the fact that no crickets could be heard. But I didn't.

Finally, I decided that I had gone far enough. I saw a branch from a tree that seemed to lean towards me. I grabbed it with a hand and pulled, but it was too strongly attached; I would need both hands. So I left the torch on the floor, put both hands around the branch and pulled again.

When the branch came loose, I fell backwards and tripped over the torch, which turned off. I tried to make it work, but to no avail. I was alone, in the dark.

And that's when it all started.


	3. Young and helpless

Darkness. I couldn't see a thing, but it wasn't just because the torch was off. I couldn't even see the moon, the stars… It was as if a black cloud had descended over my eyes, blinding me to the world…

Then I felt them.

Voices. Voices in my head. Although I couldn't understand what they were saying, there was something unmistakably threatening in their tones, something that gave me chills. At that very moment, I realized that I was paralysed. I tried to make my limbs move, but to no avail; it was as if I was frozen, as if something very big and heavy was lying right on top of me. I struggled, but I couldn't regain control of my body, no matter what I did. Suddenly, the voices became clearer.

"Don't bother, you're not going to move", said a deep voice.

"Not until we let you. _If_ we decide we want to let you" added a second one, followed by a terrible laughter.

"We should do something. It's the first time in a very long time that we get to be inside something that moves; we might as well use it."

"In this weak, human body? How far do you think we're going to get? Besides, I don't know if we can use a human without them realizing it."

Some small part of my mind wondered who "they" were, though I was quite sure I wasn't going to get an answer. Not that I could ask, of course. I didn't seem to have more control over my mind or body than a bee over the wind.

Then I remembered my friends. They were just outside the forest, waiting for me to come out. If I took too long, they would come to get me. And they could take me out of this… On the other hand, they might also fall prey to the same… _things_ than me. My memories of them attracted their attention, and once more I was suppressed inside my mind.

"They'll come to get him… we don't have the power to take over several humans at once. They ensured that", the first voice I'd heard said.

"That's right, so we'll have to use him before they come. But what are we going to do with him?"

"Well… we can't get inside a body that can actually move. But _he_ can."

There was some silence as the other voice grasped the implications of that. I tried to make sense of what they were saying, but I couldn't. I _was_ inside a body that could move, after all. Yet they didn't want it, so…

"We can make him… _another_ body" the reply came with enthusiasm, although it was a cruel, twisted enthusiasm.

"And put him in it."

"Yes, yes, but what do we do while we make the body? We must make sure he doesn't get away."

"He won't. If _we_ can't get away, then _he_ can't either…"

I didn't understand what was going on, but suddenly the voices, the… _beings_, or whatever they were, in my mind, turned to me again. Despite their silence, I could sense something terrible going on. Then my arm began to move.

I hadn't tried to do a thing with it. However, it was raising, stretching to its full length. As it did, I became aware that I was still holding the tree branch. In a fraction of a second, I understood their intentions, but there was nothing I could do about it.

The branch came down with force as I stabbed myself with it. Going right through my heart.

In an instant, I felt more pain than in my whole life. The branch had completely crossed my chest, and my heart was desperately trying to function, but I could feel that it was in vain. In a matter of seconds, I could feel myself slowly fading away… unconsciousness taking over my body… soon, I'd be dead, but at least I'd be free from the voices.

Or so I thought. Just as I realized it was my last breath, my mind suddenly woke up again, more lucid than ever, and I felt as if something was pulling me up… Not my body, just my mind. During some seconds, I tried to comprehend what had just happened, until my vision was restored.

There was I, lying on the floor. The branch was stabbed in my heart, and my shirt, as well as the ground around me, was splattered with blood. My face looked completely lifeless, my eyes open looking at nowhere, my red, wet hand still on the branch.

For a moment, I just stared, unable to think. Then it struck me. They had _killed_ me. But not all of me, just my body… They had taken my… soul, my mind, whatever it was, in the last seconds. So here I was, floating in nothingness.

Just as I reached that conclusion, I felt that strange contact again. This time, however, it was pushing me with a lot of force. All of a sudden, I sensed something physical again. As if I had a body. I tried to move, and to my astonishment I felt the rustle of tree leaves. It also felt like I had _many_ arms, and all of them quite thin. When I tried to get up, though, I was unable to.

A tree. I was inside a _tree_.

If they wanted to use me, why had they put me inside a tree? I couldn't do much inside there, except for moving my arms. I couldn't even see. Then I felt those voices again.

"We hope you like it, because you might be in here for a while" said one of them, the cruel tone much clearer now.

"Yes, until we decide what we're going to do with you…" the other one added, sounding somewhat like it was smirking.

And so they left. My mind was only mine once more, but what about my body?

* * *

I'd been in that state for a while when I felt their presence again. All of a sudden, I was dragged away from the tree. I wondered what they had planned, but then one of them answered me.

"We want you to watch this", said one of the voices in a sick way. "You can't watch from inside that tree, so we'll just have to move you for a while. Don't get used to it." And it ended its words with what seemed like laughter.

It wasn't long before I heard their voices. When I did, I went cold from head to toes, or I would've if I'd had a body.

"Mike! Where are you?" that was Will.

"Come on, this isn't funny! Come out!" added Frank.

At last I saw them approaching, or at least their shadows. All the guys were there, looking for me. And they wouldn't find me…

_Wait_. I looked down and saw my dead body there, the branch in my heart. It was simply lying underneath a tree… in the direction my friends were walking to. I tried to scream, to move, to do _something_ to prevent them from discovering me, but it was useless. They soon saw the dark silhouette on the grass and came to investigate.

At this moment, I started to turn, for I didn't want to watch this, but I felt like I was being held in place by… them.

"Guys, is that…" When Will's voice broke, I had an urge to cry, though I couldn't, of course. They all went up to the corpse, and when they illuminated it with their torches, I saw the looks of horror in all their faces. Will and Peter let out a pained scream, while the others gasped and stood motionless.

"Oh, God… Mike…" My best friend's voice was no more than a whisper. "Mike…" He began to sob quietly, while Peter tried to calm him down, though his own voice was quivering. My other friends –Frank, Mark- had no reaction at all. They were petrified, unable to move or say anything.

I was glad they couldn't see me now, because I wanted nothing more than to break down and cry. Why was this happening? When I woke up in the morning, it was a normal day, and I was just a teenager. I just wanted to have fun in Halloween. I was supposed to be with my friends, laughing at jokes about the forest, and not here, floating in the air, seeing them cry over my dead body. What had I done to deserve this? My desperation turned into anger against the voices, for the fault of all that was happening was _theirs_. I tried to attack them, although I wasn't sure of how I could do that considering that we seemed to have no body, but I didn't care. I wanted to charge at them and make them suffer, see what I was feeling right now. So I mentally tried to ram against them, break their minds, take control of myself again.

All of a sudden, I felt a strange pressure on my mind and my thoughts. At first it was slight, but then it grew until it seemed like I could no longer think for myself. It was as if a strong hand was gripping my thread of thought, squeezing it, trying to break me.

"Do you really think you can defeat _us_?" one of the voices said. "We are far more experienced than you, _boy_. Do not try to meddle with us, or we might just decide you're not useful to us anymore and end your pitiful life."

I would've liked to tell him that my life was already over anyway, and that there was nothing worse than what I was going through at that moment, but I couldn't, of course. Instead, I had to continue seeing my friends crying for me.

"Who?" Will was saying at that moment. "Who would do such a thing? _Why?_"

"Twisted people", was Frank's grim reply. "People whose evil knows no bounds, who care nothing about the rest of us."

Oh, if only he knew just how right he was, I thought.

"We must call the police", said Will. "Now."

Peter got his mobile out, dialed and then said, "There's no signal here. We need to get closer to the edge of the forest."

"All right, let's go. I can't watch this any longer" answered Mark, and they all got up except for Will.

"Will", Frank said softly. "There's nothing we can do for him right now. Come with us."

"No", he growled. "You go call the cops. I'm staying with him."

"Come" Frank insisted. "It'll do no good to stay here. Please."

My best friend seemed to think for a moment, then said, "You start going, I'll come in a minute."

The others hesitated for a moment, then nodded and left the tree. Although I was relieved that I didn't have to see them suffer anymore, Will was still there.

"I'll get him", he promised. "I swear to you, Mike, I'll get the son of a bitch who did this to you and I'll make him pay. He'll regret this day for the rest of his miserable life." Then he breathed deeply, got up and slowly walked away. Little did he know that the chances of him being able to do that were very slim.

At that moment, I was dragged back into the tree, and again forced to hear helplessly.

"All right, now that this whole sentimental nonsense is over, we need to think fast of what kind of body we're going to make, considering the powers we have."

"It must be special, something that fills men with fear when they see him."

"Something horrifying to see… something that is _killing_ to look at."

The thoughts seemed to stop at that sentence, and I felt a sudden glee and a sense of realization coming from them, but before I could try to understand their words, they blocked me out from their conversation. No longer than a minute had passed when they contacted me again, and took me out of the tree.

"Now" one of the voices said in a dangerous voice, "you're going to watch this. You'll be reborn soon."

When they heard me wondering what that meant, the other voice said, "We're going to make your new body."


	4. Murderer

A new body? Was this the reason why they'd killed mine in the first place? So it seemed. I didn't make any comment – not that it would've changed anything, of course. I simply watched where they were making me, wondering what I would see.

I began to hear them speaking urgently in what seemed a foreign language. I couldn't understand what they were saying, but there was an angry, threatening tone in the voices that gave me chills. Or they would have if I'd had my body. As it was, I didn't, so I merely kept looking forward. The voices became louder, and a sudden wind started howling through the trees. A lot of black dirt was raised from the floor, and it stayed suspended in the air. The voices grew urgent now, and even more dirt came to float in front of me. Suddenly, an evil tone crept into the voices. At that moment, I could've sworn I saw something, like black clouds, surrounding the dirt and then merging with it, darkening the whole thing. After some seconds, I realized that thing had a shape. It looked like a very tall body with long arms, but no head. Then something white seemed to emerge from the top of it, something incredibly bright. So bright, in fact, that even though I had no eyes, it blinded me for a long moment. When it stopped, I could see again. And there it was.

My new body.

Honestly, it was quite strange. It had a long, thin shape, and it was extremely tall, with the long arms I'd already seen. It was wearing a suit, strangely. But what was most surprising of all was the head. It was snow white, and it literally had _no face_. Like an egg. Overall, the body looked slightly frightening.

"It's done", said one of the voices. "Now let us show you the abilities of our creation."

Once again, I was dragged inside the body. I was becoming strangely used to that. It was scary, to look at it from up close, but it was a matter of seconds before I couldn't see a thing. For a moment. Then I realized my vision had been restored, because I was inside the body.

It felt strange, because it wasn't my own, but it felt relieving to be inside _something_ and not being just a shadow in the air. I wasn't used to seeing things from such a height, and this was weird, but that was all. Of course it couldn't last for long.

"First, we need to get away from here. The humans will soon be back and we need time to think. So we're going here." And I was sent a mental image of a place in the middle of the forest. I had no idea where that was, though. How was I supposed to get there?

"Fix the image in your mind, and try to get there."

I didn't think this would work, but I knew there was no point complaining. They would just torture me, and there was no way I could get out of that body, so why try? Besides, it puzzled me that I didn't feel like I could move, as if my body were unresponsive. I didn't know how I was supposed to go from one place to another. However, since there was nothing else I could do, I did what the voice told me. I pictured myself in that place.

All of a sudden, I became aware of a horrible sensation, as if I was… _evaporating_, that was the only way to describe it. I lost the feeling of my body, just like when I was a mere spectre. At the same time, everything went black. It was so similar to when I was outside my body I began to fear I'd been dragged out yet again, but then my body seemed to return, as well as my vision. Perplex, I looked around and saw that I was in the place the voices had shown me. I realised I still couldn't move my limbs, and despite this I had somehow gone from one place to the other.

"It's called 'teleporting'", one of them told me. "It's one of your new abilities. Unfortunately, our power is somewhat diminished so we couldn't give you a lot, but what you can do will suffice for us."

I wondered, once again, what they were planning to do with me, and one of them replied, "You'll see. Literally. Look around and _see_. Watch. Observe."

I obliged, knowing full well it was pointless to refuse, and was quite surprised. My senses seemed to have become keener. I could see many kilometres away from me, and more than that, I felt like I was aware of the presence of every being, animal or plant, in the forest. It was as if I'd really opened my eyes for the first time. In a way, it felt like the forest and I were one.

Approval seemed to emanate from the beings as I reached that conclusion. One of them asked me what I could see, so I let my eyes go far, far away, trying to grasp what the voice meant. Right then, I felt like I'd been kicked.

Will was coming. However, he wasn't alone. He was accompanied by Jeannie Coppers, local chief of police. Behind them, I could sense more officers coming.

"About what time did you find him?", she was asking my friend. I jumped with surprise (mentally); until then I hadn't realised I could also hear everything.

"Half an hour ago, more or less. As soon as we found him, we called you." Will's voice sounded more under control now, but I could tell it was hard for him to say the words.

"All right. Vladimir, set up a perimeter. Damien, check the surrounding area for hairs, footsteps, anything. Camille, call the forest guards; we're going to need help." As the people scattered about to do their tasks, the agent looked down. Only then did I figure out they were close to where my body lay.

"Poor Mike. Who did this to you?", she muttered to herself. Oh, I wish could answer her. Then I realised for a second that I was inside a body. I'd just teleported; maybe I could do it again, go next to her and tell her all about it. Then I realised nobody would recognise me in this tall, faceless figure; what's more, they might shoot me.

"Watch out", one of the voices suddenly whispered. I looked around to see that the man called Damien was indeed checking the surroundings… and he was coming my way.

"Time to show you what you can do", said the other one. For some reason, I felt some kind of excited anticipation coming from them. Hmm… considering what they'd already done to me, nothing good was about to happen, and I could bet it was related to that man. I tried to get away from him by teleporting – maybe I could stop him from coming too close – but I was unable.

"Don't even think about it", one of them said threateningly. So I couldn't teleport if they didn't allow me to, which would probably mean bad news for this guy. I helplessly watched him as he came closer, fear for him washing over me. At last, he spotted me and immediately drew his gun.

"Put your hands where I can see them", he commanded. I tried to obey, but my arms didn't budge. He repeated that, louder now, and when I still didn't move, he shot me. However, I felt nothing. Absolutely nothing. Like no bullet had been shot. The officer, seeing I was still standing, stepped closer to me and then made the mistake of looking at my face. For a second, I saw horror written all over his features, and then he simply collapsed.

"What's happened to him?" I mentally asked the voices, terrified. They just laughed.

"Why, we've put him to sleep… forever."

The horror I'd just seen in the man's face became my own.

"You… _killed_ him?"

"No, _you_ killed him. With your own powers."

I couldn't begin to describe what I felt at that moment. Sadness. Guilt. Anger at the voices. Anger at myself for doing this, even though there was nothing I could have done. And above all, the terrifying sensation that this wouldn't be the last victim. I looked at the man's face. Though I didn't know him, he probably had a family, a wife and kids that loved him, a life, a future. And I'd just torn that away from him.

Before I could think any further, something caught the attention of the beings and they made me look at it. To my horror, I saw Will coming towards the place. And I knew exactly what those controlling me were planning to do. At that second, my anger overrode any other feeling I might be having. I was a good person, and I had friends, and lead a very normal life, and now these… whatever they were, had killed me, forced me to watch my friends mourn for me, made me kill, and now they wanted to make me murder my _best friend_?

No. I wouldn't allow them to go that far.

They sensed my determination and got ready to stop me, but my hatred towards them made me stronger for a second. I didn't even know what I was doing; I just knew that I wanted to be far, far away from my friend, to save him. Before I knew it, I was standing at the other end of the forest, way too far from the place my body was for anyone to come here. I was safe now… _Will_ was safe, I corrected myself. _I_ was the danger now.

During the whole evening, I stayed where I was, my force of will the only thing preventing the voices from sending me closer to the people. Eventually, they stopped, but I kept my guard up, for I knew they might start attacking again at any moment.

In the morning, the voices suddenly talked to me, and their tone was quite malicious, cruel.

"Very well, since you didn't let yourself kill your friend, we'll just have to make up for that now." As he said those words, I frantically tried to shield myself, but the force I'd felt the previous evening had left me. Now that my best friend wasn't in danger, nothing could make me angry enough to defy them.

"See the coroner over there? He's got a notepad, as you will see. You'll get that from him. We've been thinking, and we know what we're going to do with it." I used my heightened vision to look around and, indeed, the coroner was examining my body and taking notes. Other cops were around him, scanning the forest.

"Now, we're going to create a distraction, long enough for you to kill him and get away." Before I could react, they began to chant in that strange language they'd used to create my body. Suddenly, a tree simply fell down somewhere in the forest. Everyone looked there. I didn't try to hear what they said, but soon they all started walking in that direction, save for the coroner.

"It's time."

I was completely unable to stop them from making me teleport right next to him. I saw exactly the same thing as the first time: horror crossing his face, and then he simply died. I didn't have time to feel anything, because they forced me to stare at the notepad in his hand. I didn't know why they were doing this, but all I wanted to do was to scream, run away, do something to stop myself from hurting even more people, because the feeling of last night was running all over me again, the pain, guilt, and anger all together. Yet there wasn't a thing I could do. Then the notepad disappeared. And soon after, I did too.

I wasn't so far away from my body, but maybe they wouldn't find me and die because of it. I wondered what the voices were planning to do with the notepad.

"You'll see now", they answered.

The notepad, for some reason, was floating before my eyes, or it would've, had I had eyes. For the third time, the voices began speaking and dirt came up, on the notepad. I looked at it and saw the dirt wasn't just lying there. It was forming words.

_Help me_, it read.

"What are you doing?"

"We said you'd have to make up. This is the way."

I didn't have a choice but to stare, first with disbelief and then with growing dismay, as the dirt was used to write a second message in another page. The first one seemingly tore itself from the notepad and disappeared. The second one read _Don't look or it takes you_.

That was… a warning. About _me_. Why on earth were they writing a warning?

"Can't you think of the answer?" they said. "What do you think will be their reactions to something like this?"

I didn't have to stop to consider it. Fear, of course. That was their ultimate goal, to create terror inside men's hearts.

"Of course, they're going to die, so we might as well tell them." And a third page was written: _Can't run_.

"They should know this", one of the voices said. "They have to know there's no way to escape you… to escape _us_."

I felt sick as I watched the fourth message: _Leave me alone_. That was probably what they'd feel when they saw me coming…

"Now, let's tell them a bit more about you." Another note was written: _Always watches, no eyes._ Something else to be afraid of.

And then, to my horror, a rough picture of me was drawn, me among the trees.

"They have to know what you look like, don't they?" They laughed. "So that they can recognise you from a distance. They wouldn't be so afraid otherwise. Oh, and just in case that one's not enough…" This time the drawing was of me alone, but on top of it was written the word _Follows_.

"Just for them to know… One last thing." Again, a picture of myself, with the word _no_ written repeatedly on the sides.

Now I understood more deeply what they wanted to do. Not only were they planning to make me kill even more people, but they had also made it a kind of terrifying scavenger hunt. The difference was that with each new page found, they'd be ever more scared, and when I was finally forced to appear before them and kill them, they'd be utterly horrified by me.

Just as horrified as I was now.

"Ah, you'd better get used to it. We told you defying us would have consequences. But don't worry, we'll wait until tonight. The darkness scares people, which will be even better." They both gave an unpleasant laugh.

I felt my panic growing throughout the day. What I would be made to do was plain _evil_ – scare people almost to death and _then_ murder them, as if they were nothing. Each and every of the cops that came in here had lives – wives, children, friends – and I'd be tearing all that from them. It was extremely wrong, but it wasn't like I had a choice. I couldn't get my strength to grow – not again. Especially because what I now felt was far from anger. Rather, my dread was intensifying by the minute.

As much as I 'd wished it hadn't, the sun finally came down, and the moon went up in the sky.

"Get ready. Someone's coming."

Indeed, I could see someone, but whoever it was, they were really far away from me, and they weren't heading towards me. However, I then looked more carefully and saw… No, they weren't coming _here_, but they were going straight towards the _Always watches, no eyes_ note.

I suddenly went cold from head to toe, and I felt I might just faint from the horror I was feeling. That person would see the note and wonder what it was, and then they'd become more and more scared after each one…

Finally, the man -for it was male - made it to the tree and read the note. All I could see in his face was confusion, but that feeling would pass soon enough - as soon as he found other notes. Immediately, the beings made the following note appear in a tree some metres away from where he was, and of course he went to get it. This was the _Can't run_ one, and I could now see a small hint of fear in his face. This only worsened after he found a third page: _Leave me alone_. All the while, I felt the horror swelling inside me, so much that I didn't know how it could fit inside my body. When the man found the _Follows_ note with my drawing, he was genuinely scared. Then I felt the voices.

"All right, enough for now. Get him."

Then I saw the darkness that meant I was teleporting… right next to him. I couldn't help it, as much as I fought, and he soon saw me, standing there. For a few, terrible seconds, I saw a look of such fear and horror in his face, I wanted to scream. Then he dropped to the floor, dead. At that moment, I was sick, like I wanted to throw up, but I couldn't. This, killing people, was all I could do now.

And that is my story. How I went from being a normal teenager to becoming this monster. At first I fought every time I felt the beings about to make me murder someone. However, over time I lost all sensitivity. There was no way to get them to release me, so why bother? Sometimes they made me show myself to them from a distance, to make them even more afraid. The only respite I was given was the permission to visit my tomb. It's not nice, to see that my life has ended, and that's why they allow me to go. Yet it enables me to remember my story, and make sure I don't forget it. I've tried so many times to kill myself – but it's simply impossible. I will never be myself again.

Never.


	5. Epilogue

_Today, boys and girls everywhere in High Lake are celebrating Halloween, dressed up and trick-or-treating. Unfortunately, today's also a grim day for the Randall family, as it's the third anniversary of their son's mysterious death in the Darkwood forest..._

Not just the Randall family, but also for us. Mark, Peter, Frank and I. My best friend disappeared into the forest, only to be cruelly killed by some crazy sick bastard. Murdered on a night when most children were outside, asking for candy in every house. A night to be enjoyed by everyone.

Now, every Halloween, I sit down in my room, staring outside the window. Although my parents try to get me to go outside and do something, I refuse to. They think they understand, but they don't. Nobody does, save maybe for those who were also there. However, none of them lost someone who was like their brother. Because that was the relationship I had with him: Mike was the brother I never had. We'd played together since before we could remember; he'd always lived opposite my house. I remember how every summer our parents would take us to the river by the forest and teach us how to swim. During the school term, we used to get together practically every evening, helping each other with the homework if any of us was having difficulty, talking and playing cards, a computer game or whatever. After we started high school, the others moved into town and we quickly befriended them, but the friendship with them was never like the one I had with Mike.

And in just a matter of minutes, that was taken away from me. I cannot begin to describe what I felt when I saw his body lying there, on the ground, with a branch through the heart. My whole world seemed to fall down, like there was nothing left, nothing to hold on to. After the first, terrible minutes, I decided to focus all of my pain on one thing: help the police find the son of a bitch who did that to my friend. However, said son of a bitch had other plans. That same evening, a cop who had been sent to investigate the area surrounding Mike was killed. The day after, the coroner suffered the same fate. Of course, this meant that the police weren't very keen on continuing the investigation for long, and after a week they practically gave up. But I wasn't going to let that lunatic get away with it. For weeks, I passed out posters, searched the woods for clues, looked up information about well-known serial killers for similar MOs, anything that might lead me to the murderer.

Today, it's been three years of that dreadful night. I'm not any closer to finding him than when it all happened. What's more, strange things happen to people in that forest. Some who have been there in the evening say that they saw an inhumanly tall man in a suit. They say he's a demon, that he has no face and that he'll kill them. They even claim they've found some pages regarding him, yet when they search their pockets or rucksacks nothing's there. Other people have simply disappeared. At first I was sceptical, but now I'm convinced that, whoever that man is, he's the one responsible for my best friend's death. For a long while now, I've been thinking of the best way to get him without him finding me first, because I'm sure if that happens I'm a dead man, which won't help to catch him. Soon, I'm going to go to that forest, and that bastard is going to pay. He'll wish he'd never been born.

He can't run. Nobody can help him. And I won't leave him alone.

Just like Mike on that night.

Why him?


End file.
